We've all seen or heard The Picturebooks, one of our favorite hard-rocking biker bands…. well get ready for the new band on the scene - The Engine Books! No just kidding, The Engine Books aren’t the newest rock craze, but rather a series of fantastic soft cover books showcasing the powerplants that are the hearts and souls of our two-wheeled family members. Photographer Patrick Katzman has released this new series, stemming from his work through the Thrash It Don't Stash It series. While taking photos for the Volume I & Volume II books, Patrick shot some vertical images of the engine on each motorcycle. Not wanting to waste the imagery he thought it would be best to create a series showcasing each masterpiece. Enjoy!

"About a week before heading out to the Jokers show in 2013 where and when I started these book project I came across this vertical image of an engine that just caught my eye!

I really dig the low angle and strength from the image. I decided that along with the profiles shots of all the bikes; I would do some vertical shots of all the engines and eventually put them together to make some individual booklets of the different engines.

With over 600 bikes shot in total, I ended up with a lot of different engine shots. Since most are HD's I separated them into different categories: Knuckleheads, Panheads, Shovelheads, Flatheads, Ironheads, & The Others ( Indians, Triumphs, etc…). I knew that I didn't want to just put a photo of one of the engines on the cover of each booklet so I reached out to a good friend and illustrator that I have wanted to work with for some time, Nisse and asked him about doing six individual sketches of the six photos I selected for the covers. He was a bit hesitant at first since he had not done something like this before, but two days later he sent me the sketch for The Knuckleheads cover, and it was perfect. He nailed it! So he carried on with the other five covers, and they look killer! The first photo in each book is of the engine that is on the cover. I am stoked with the end results! Thanks again, Nisse. The books are A5 in size with a 300-gram cover and 150-gram interior.. makes for some good library material!"

Co-Sponsorship with EAT DUST. You can by The Engine Books here where you can check out details on some of the bikes I photographed or directly to the shoplift page: https://thrash-it-dont-stash-it.myshopify.com.

Thanks again to all who stepped up and let me photograph them and their bikes!!!

Back at it this summer. So keep an eye out for Vol. III.

Patrick